NFL: Jackson hopes fans can give home team a lift

PHILADELPHIA — DeSean Jackson appealed to Eagles fans Tuesday to be the 12th man for the home team, not the Washington Redskins this weekend.

Jackson made it clear he’s not blaming the diehards for exercising their freedom of speech. Rather, he’s reaching out for help in the hope it can help end a franchise record 10-game home losing streak.

“We need them on our side, not against us,” Jackson said. “But you can’t blame anybody else but ourselves.”

The Eagles are 0-4 at Lincoln Financial Field and 5-1 away from it.

The offense is averaging 32.7 points on the road and 14 points at home.

Not one of quarterback Nick Foles’ 16 touchdown passes this season have come at the Linc.

The closest thing the Eagles have to a win at home this year is new WIFI.

If the Eagles thought ticket holders would be too busy checking their smart phones to scrutinize every mistake, they were wrong.

“Coming into a game, sometimes it’s three minutes into a game and you hear boos and things like that,” said Jackson, who ranks third in the league with 903 receiving yards. “It’s kind of crazy to hear, especially at home. But you never blame that for the reason why you’re losing because we’re professional athletes and you’ve got to go out there and win a game. … (I’m) just saying that energy helps us get going.”

Chip Kelly is at wits end to explain the home and away disparity. Though he kidded about putting his players on busses and driving somewhere before their next home game, no one would be surprised if it happened.

“We’ll drive to Jersey and back, or I don’t know,” offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said. “We’d like to, we’d love to have dominance at home. We found a way to win games on the road, which we all know is difficult and we just got to come back and play better. It isn’t a great answer. We’ve just got to play better against our opponents that we play at home. And the reality of it is this is a week-to-week thing. We’ve got to do what we can this week to play this week’s opponent and make more plays than they do, and that just happens to be the Redskins.”

Jackson is determined to do whatever he can to end the home skid against the Redskins (3-6), who are setting up head coach Mike Shanahan for retirement. The Eagles thumped the Redskins, 33-27, in the season opener. And yes, that was on the road.

The fans just might grant Jackson his wish that they boo him, not his younger teammates.

“For myself, I understand it, being here for six years,” said Jackson, tied with teammate Riley Cooper, among others for eighth in the league with seven touchdown receptions. “I can understand where the frustration comes from and why the fans are the way they are. But to the younger guys, I don’t think they understand the ins and outs of why they’re getting booed and the frustration of where it’s coming from. I can take it. Let them boo me. Just don’t boo the younger guys. It’s something we can sense, we can feel it … It’s not to blame it on anyone.”

Eagles rookie right offensive tackle Lane Johnson, the first-round pick out of Oklahoma, has been booed before. That’s life in the big leagues. At the same time Johnson is pretty sure the Eagles are good enough to work through this with their fans.

“We’ll go back to the bench,” Johnson said “and some will just be cussing us and showing us some love in that order. They’re very passionate. Obviously they want us to do well. And when things aren’t going well they’ll let us know about it. All we can do is keep on playing.

“It’s us against the Redskins. The fans can only do so much. I think when we execute it will take care of itself. I think when we’re executing and we play a good game the fans will come along.”